Items tagged with Automobiles
Toyota today announced that it will establish a new company that will serve as an research and development enterprise with an initial focus on artificial intelligence and robotics. Called Toyota Research Institute Inc. (TRI), the newly formed operation will be headquartered in Silicon Valley near Stanford University...
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One thing we can all agree on is that children are unpredictable. We're not just talking about those random pokes to the eye and blurted out phrases that will have you wondering, "Where the flip did they hear that?," but also in their sporadic movements. It's for that reason Google is taking extra measures to ensure...
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Electric and self-driving vehicles are already here in some capacity, though if you think about it, the existing solutions are clunky. That's because neither technology has been around long enough to mature. Electric vehicles haven't yet replicated the combination of performance and distance capabilities of their gas...
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We've all seen a distracted motorist veer off into a neighboring lane because he or she was too involved with operating a smartphone to safely navigate an automobile, but would the person be any better off using hands-free technology? Car makers think so, though new research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety...
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Lamborghini debuted the open top version of its sleek and sexy Aventador LP 700-4 Superveloce that was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show earlier this year. For the topless LP 750-4 Roadster model, which is the first and only of its kind in the Superveloce family, Lamborghini headed to Pebble Beach and rolled out its...
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Is there anything scarier than the thought of a hacker remotely taking control of your vehicle's steering and braking functions as you barrel down the highway? Well sure, being eaten alive by flesh eating zombies like an episode of The Walking Dead would cause most people to soil their undergarments, but losing...
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Ford rightfully claims that driving on unlit roads at night can be a "nerve-wracking experience." No, not because you're lost in a rural area and are about to live out a scene in Wrong Turn, but because you never know when an animal or human might be walking in the shadows on the side of the road. To help you spot...
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It's a pretty big deal that Ford is mass producing carbon fiber wheels for its Shelby GT350R Mustang. How so? For one, never before has a major automobile manufacturer offered carbon fiber wheels as standard equipment -- you'd have to enter the supercar scene, where only Koenigsegg has offered optional carbon fiber...
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Google this week confirmed plans to take its autonomous car project into new territory to see how its self-driving cars handle and react to different challenges than the ones they've already been exposed to. The new location is Austin, Texas, an area that's been friendly to Google's projects, such as its fiber...
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Nobody likes it when their smartphone gets hot. High thermals can lead to processor throttling and reduced battery life, and while most phones have built-in mechanisms to prevent the latter, they can cause the phone to pause charging or even turn off completely. To prevent such things from occurring while in transit...
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It was reported yesterday that there was a "close call" between two prototype self-driving cars from separate companies (Google and Delphi). The so-called "incident" involved an Audi Q5 crossover vehicle from Delphi that was planning to change lanes. Before it could, a self-driving Lexus RX400h crossover from Google...
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Nobody likes getting behind a semi-trailer truck. Those 18-wheelers typically drive slower than four-wheeled cars (not all the time, mind you), and because of their size, there's quite a bit of roadway that gets blocked. You can't see what's going on in front of the truck, and passing isn't always easy, especially if...
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has grown tired of waiting on future technologies to help curb the dangers of distracted driving and is recommending that currently available collision avoidance systems be a standard feature on all new passenger and commercial vehicles. From the NTSB's standpoint...
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If you're old enough to remember The Jetsons, a cartoon series that ran from 1962 to 1988, you probably thought we'd all be taking to the skies in flying cars by now. We're not there yet, but in place of flying cars, automakers and wealthy tech companies are testing out autonomous vehicles. Several prototypes already exist, including Audi's
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Remember when power windows were considered luxuries in the automobile world? Times are changing and these days there are all kinds of fancy pants features out there, from cars that park themselves to ones that even drive on their own. Those technologies are still in development and won't become mainstream for quite...
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We've long heard about the dangers of text messaging while behind the wheel, yet according to a survey conducted by AT&T, it's still the most prevalent activity by those who admit to engaging in smartphone activities when driving. And how many admitted such behavior? Seven out of 10 surveyed, a staggering number made even more frightening
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The automobile industry is changing right before our very eyes. We have companies like Chevrolet building insanely powerful modern-day muscle cars; Ford and others getting fancy with newfangled technology integrations; Tesla pushing new and used sales of electric vehicles; and of course companies like Google ready to...
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Summer is fast approaching, and that means swimming pools, backyard barbeques, vacations, and self-driving cars. Wait, what? That last one is being added to the list as Google gears up to unleash a few of the prototype autonomous vehicles it's been testing onto public roads in Mountain View, California, where the...
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There was a lot of buzz in the media yesterday when it was revealed that four of the 50 self-driving cars deployed in California had been involved in accidents since hitting the streets last September. Three of those automobiles were using sensors provided by Google, though only two of the four accidents occurred when...
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Google and others are investing in a future where automobiles are fully automated, getting us from point A to point B on their own. We're at a very early stage in what could be a revolution in the auto industry, though it doesn't bode well that around 8 percent of the self-driving cars motoring around California have...
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Tesla is growing up right before our eyes. The startup that continues to shake up the automotive industry with its lineup of electric vehicles that can only be ordered online is now selling pre-owned Model S cars on its website. Pricing depends on the year, miles, and exact configuration, though each pre-owned vehicle...
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Motor Trend's Jonny Lieberman narrates an interesting 17-minute video on YouTube that pits the world's quickest sedan against the world's fastest sedan, those two being the Tesla Model S P85D and Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, respectively, both 2015 variants. Before getting to the results, it's important to understand...
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